1. Technical Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to a printing apparatus, more specifically, a printing apparatus to print images on fabrics.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a printing apparatus for printing an image on a piece of fabric, having a platen to hold the fabric, an inkjet head to eject inks onto the fabric, a carriage to move the inkjet head, an operation panel, and a set of colored inks, has been known. According to such a printing apparatus, an image represented by a piece of print data is formed on a piece of fabric as the carriage is moved in a main scanning direction and the platen is moved in an auxiliary direction.
Such a printing apparatus is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3029516. According to the publication, the printing apparatus is provided with two carriages, which are a first carriage arranged on an upstream side in direction to move the fabric (i.e., the auxiliary direction) and a second carriage arranged on a downstream side in the platen's moving direction. The first carriage and the second carriage are provided with a first print head and a second print head respectively so that images are formed the fabric being moved in the auxiliary direction successively, i.e., firstly with the first print head and secondly with the second print head.
Generally, prior to and after a printing operation, an inkjet printing apparatus conducts a pre-printing operation and an after-printing operation. That is, when the inkjet printing apparatus completes a printing operation, the carriage with the inkjet heads is moved to a maintenance position, and a nozzle surface of the inkjet head is wiped and capped (after-print operation), in order to prevent the nozzle surface from being dried out. When the inkjet printing apparatus starts a printing operation, the cap covering the nozzle surface of the inkjet head is detached, the uncovered nozzle surface is wiped, and the carriage is moved to a print-start position, in which the inkjet head starts ejecting inks (pre-print operation).